City announces nominees for downtown Asheville BID board

At the October 9, 2012, formal meeting, City Council adopted a resolution creating a downtown Municipal Service District, also known as a Business Improvement District, in downtown Asheville. The resolution states “that a permanent board of directors for the BID be appointed no later than December 15, 2012.” The resolution does not state how the initial permanent board of directors would come into being and therefore, Council suggested creation of a nominating committee of two City Council members and three interim Board members and the five of those appoint two additional people to bring a recommended slate of initial permanent board members to the City Council.

In addition to Jan Davis and Marc Hunt, the nominating committee consisted of Kim MacQueen, George Saenger, Lou Bissette, and Adrian Vassallo. The application process was advertised and a total of 29 applications from well-qualified candidates were received by the nominating committee through November 16, to ensure consideration. The committee was pleased with applicant response, which made the recommendation process extremely competitive and difficult to narrow down. The application and selection process emphasized diverse representation of the downtown business district to include: major real estate property owner within the BID area (property above $10 million tax value), small/medium real estate property owner within the BID area (property under $10 million tax value), resident living within the BID area, office tenant operating within the BID area, and owner or operator of a retail business or restaurant within the BID area.

In addition to the recommended slate of board members, the Asheville City Council shall appoint one board member as an ex-officio voting member of the board, as shall the Buncombe County Commissioners and Asheville Downtown Association. Once these appointments are made, this will bring the total board number to 17.